Wipes have been treated with antimicrobial agents for cleaning a wide variety of different surfaces, including hard surfaces, skin, etc. One class of antimicrobial agents that has been employed are water soluble or dispersible cationic antimicrobial actives, such as quaternary ammonium compounds (e.g., benzethonium or benzalkonium salts). These antimicrobial agents can be incorporated into an aqueous germicidal solution that is applied to the wipe during manufacturing (i.e., pre-moistened wipe) or subsequently added to the wipe by the consumer just prior to use. One problem, however, is that certain antimicrobial agents can become bound to the polar fibers and are thus generally less effective in killing bacteria present on a surface. Another problem is that the antimicrobial agent becomes readily exhausted after a short period of time such that they only mildly inhibit growth or may only be used for a very limited number of wipes. One attempt to solve this problem is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,898. In the '898 patent, the release of disinfectants from a substrate is controlled by coating the substrate with a residue of an aqueous composition of a water soluble polymer and a quaternary disinfectant. The water soluble polymer (e.g., polyvinyl alcohol) has a weight average molecular weight of 85,000 to 186,000 and a degree of hydrolysis of 87% to 89%. Unfortunately, however, coatings of this nature are still not effective enough in inhibiting the absorption of the quaternary disinfectants on polar materials, such as cellulosic-based fibrous webs. Furthermore, such polymer coatings can also reduce antimicrobial efficacy by leaching out of the wipe during use and blocking the cell walls of the bacteria from the antimicrobial agent.
As such, a need currently exists for an antimicrobial wipe that is effective and able to release a substantial portion of the antimicrobial agent during use.